Very few people know that Mtunzini’s Umlalazi River was used as a filming location for a remake of the 1976 TV drama, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, based on the historical, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alex Haley.
A part of the series was filmed along the river in September 2015 because of the river’s uncanny similarity to the Kumby Bolongo River in The Gambia and featured in Haley’s novel.
The river’s exotic look; dense vegetation and all around untouched beauty is the reason why directors considered it a prime location to shoot a scene of the then, globally anticipated television series.
Mtunzini residents would smile and shrug at this news, because we know how uniquely beautiful our river is and that it’s about time it gets the spotlight it deserves.
But underneath the river’s celebrity status, the Umlalazi River could only ever remind me of home.
It was where I was invited to my first birthday party after moving into town 12 years ago; where we shrieked and laughed whilst being dragged along the river on a tube.
It was where I went fishing with my dad when he was still able to convince me that fishing was a captivating sport.
The mangrove forest, on the banks of the river, was a playground to explore; a place for us to dirty our clothes beyond recognition and dodge the millions of tiny crabs living in the crevices of the mud.
As children, we were oblivious to the fact that we were exactly where the white Zulu chief, John Dunn, used to go with his many wives to bathe and clean themselves.
We were unaware of the unique history embedded in the mangroves, the river and the town we were so familiar with.
Visits to the lagoon are now few and far between since going to university, but it has now become a sanctuary for me.
I now prefer to experience the river from inside a paddle ski.
Without sounding too romantic, I have not felt more at peace, paddling on the Umlalazi River as the sun slowly rises, with mirror-like water on either side and not another soul in sight.
Whether the reason for being in Mtunzini is the beach, birding, cycling or hiking, only having an early morning coffee next to the river will transport you.
You won’t know whether you are in the middle of Gambian forest or if you stumbled upon a piece of paradise that no one knows about.
I have gained new appreciation for my small town and what it has to offer.
It is now my haven and sanctuary from the bustling chaos that is ever present in the outside world. Mtunzini cannot be considered a part of the real world, it is far too unique and strangely untouched for that to be true.
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